Archive for Monster

It’s been damn near two months since I posted anything! Where the hell have I been? Getting caught up in work and personal activities, so at least drama is not the cause. I’ve been swimming a lot and losing weight lately so that’s a plus, but I know I need to refocus myself and realize what’s really important. Scaring the crap out of people!

I know, I deserve to burn in the deepest pits of internet hell for this period of absence, but allow me to beg forgiveness and see if I can muster up a better work ethic. Fingers crossed…

In any case here’s a piece offering for now. Trust me, you will need your choice of alcoholic beverage afterwards.

You can guess what movie I just watched! And it’s about time too. Seems like this film has been released everywhere except the U.S. I wanted to see this flick so much, it was starting to drive me nuts (though not as crazy as Amelia).

Amelia’s a lonely widow living with her son, Samuel. He’s a difficult child, making his own weapons and talking about killing monsters – even to the point where he’s pulled out of school. To make matters worse, his birthday is coming up, which also coincides with the death of his father, Amelia’s lost husband. It’s a very stressful time in their household.

Which is made even worse by the inexplicable appearance of a strange pop-up book titled “Mister Babadook.” It tells the story of a monster by the same name. It terrifies Sam and sets him on an obsessive path to try to protect both himself and his mother from the creature. Amelia’s closer inspection shows the book predicting horrible things happening, things that she will do to her child.

Amelia tries to convince her son the monster isn’t real, but strange occurrences prove otherwise. Will mother and son be able to contend with the Babadook? Or will they find themselves overwhelmed?

It’s spooky, it’s smart, and tells a gut-wrenching story that left my stomach in knots. Those who prefer a faster paced film or expecting a straight-up monster movie will be disappointed; The Babadook is not that kind of film. The slow tension is well worth it though, as we get to know Amelia and her son so well while they’re tormented, which only ups the ante emotionally. A horror movie is so much better when you actually give a damn about the characters.

In fact, I enjoyed the film so much that I pre-ordered my very own copy of the pop-up book shown in the film. It just hope it reaches the minimum amount of orders so it’ll actually get printed. Fingers crossed!

Okay, so I’d like to get in a little deeper at this point. I’ll be discussing different plot points throughout the film. If you’re wary of spoilers, DON’T READ PAST THIS POINT. You’ve been warned!

So, I imagine it’s safe to say that this monster is a personification of grief. It’s very clear that Amelia is still dealing with the loss of her husband, even after six years. Sam doesn’t get to celebrate his birthday on the proper date because it’s the same as his father’s death, and Amelia keeps all his old things down in their cellar. This grief leaves them very isolated from other people as they’re unable to connect with family or create new relationships.

As Amelia’s grief starts to overwhelm her, the tension builds and the Babadook makes himself known. This is especially true when Amelia’s mental state starts deteriorating and she gets ‘possessed.’ Grief-stricken people often lash out, even at the ones they love. There is a monster inside her, but it’s her own emotions that make her act out.

They say you can’t get rid of the Babadook, and that makes total sense if he and grief are one and the same. Those who have suffered the loss never really get over it. That pain will always be with them, and Amelia and her son are no exception. The solution is simple: you learn to live with it. It becomes a part of you and your daily life that you acknowledge and look after. In Amelia’s case that means keeping it in your basement and feeding it bugs from the garden, but hey, people often deal with their grief in strange ways!

Perhaps in a way all are secretly looking after a babadook of our own. How do you live with yours?

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I’ve been going through some minor health problems lately, and unfortunately I’ll be going through surgery in the near future. Don’t worry though! I’ll still be here to bring you the creepy content you deserve.

If things go according to plan, I’ll be sharing with you all a video entry for a contest on Youtube! It’s going to be very special, so I hope you’ll enjoy it.

In the meantime let me share with you another video from my collection. Have a wonderful weekend.

Really, ‘mixed’ is a word that doesn’t even begin to describe the way I feel about this game.

Ao Oni is a free downloadable game that has earned quite a following in both Japan and the States. There’s even an officially published novel based on it. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about its makers or development history, but I will begin by saying it is an impressive effort, considering it’s a free product. However, Ao Oni has many problematic moments that I can’t help but point out.

First, the plot is dreadfully uninspired. The basic premise begins with four teenagers exploring a reputedly haunted house, and they get more than they bargained for. It really smacks of the cliches around almost every stupid horror movie ever made. The characters also don’t have much depth to them. They pretty much consist of the horror flick stereotypes: the wimp, the leader, the nerd, and the girl. If it’s any consolation you get to play the nerd.

Getting stuck with four of your closest friends and one monster makes for a TOTALLY fun Saturday night!

Another major complaint, and there’s really no other way to put this – the puzzles are terrible. Many of them are just plain counter-intuitive and don’t make sense. Take for example this strange doll puzzle: you not only have to burn a doll to get it’s eye, but put the eye into another doll head, take the head, shove that head into a different puzzle to get an item, and later shove a lightbulb into the headless doll body to proceed to the next area. Makes sense, right?… Okay, maybe not.

At another point there’s an item hidden under a carpet that you need in order to solve a different puzzle, but due to the basic graphics I missed the slightly crumpled corner of the carpet and had to have that pointed out to me. So, if you choose to play this game, you will get stuck – you will get stuck a lot. The only reason I managed to finish it quickly was because I looked at a walkthrough whenever I was stumped on what to do.

The appearance of the monsters left me laughing initially. The ‘oni’ that chase you and your friends around are tall, purple creatures with slim bodies and huge heads. I swear these damn things look like the result of SCP-173 and Barney the Dinosaur somehow producing a baby, with added inspiration from Easter Island sculptures. I won’t spoil why, but as the game goes on the monsters start wearing goofy ‘wigs’ as well. Doesn’t really sound like something that inspires fear, right?

I think SCP-173 might need to sue somebody…

While there’s so much that Ao Oni gets wrong, it seems that it gets two major aspects of horror games right: establishing fear and paranoia.

Core gameplay is based around evasion rather than combat. The best you can do is run, hide, and hope the oni don’t catch you. This makes the silly-looking oni much more frightening than if you had some means of defending yourself or taking a more offensive stance.

Also, while there are many scripted chases, oni can appear at almost any time. This is especially true if you’re lost and wandering from room to room. There are many times where I found myself gasping and panicking whenever an oni appeared on my screen.

This face will haunt your nightmares. You’re welcome!

Ao Oni also has a bit of a ‘signature’ moment that will last within the player’s mind long after the end credits. It’s very popular with the fans. It’s when the player enters what’s called the Oni room.

I think I may be on a bad acid trip…

Seeing all these deformed versions of oni is definitely a shock to the system.

Despite my complaints, I still managed to enjoy myself. You might think of Ao Oni a shoddy carnival ride, but the free ticket ensures that it’s still worth hopping on an enjoying it for what it does offer.

It was like nothing she had ever seen before: it looked like a sick ball of slime with two popping eyes with scrawny legs as feeble support. It spoke through a rounded flapping mouth from which tiny teeth could be seen, even in the darkness. It repeated its nonsense phrase over and over crawling back and forth in a frenzied effort.

Despite Eva’s demands and the noise from the monster, there came no reply. For a moment she felt helpless; she couldn’t bring herself to get up and confront the slimy terror. She was just starting to begin to wonder what to do when it choose to hop off her bed and crawl across to the door. As it made its way there, Eva was astonished to see the door swing open for the creature as if on demand. It turned back to give a sadistic little grin before it hopped through and out of sight.

For a moment, she sat in the dark wondering what the hell had just happened. It was too bizarre to be real, and yet it had just come and went. Her stomach churned at the thought of seeing the little beast squirming around again, but she remained silent knowing that her mother was pretty much useless right now. The door still remained open.

She didn’t know what possessed her to get up at that point; she had wanted to keep away from that thing just moments before. Yet she found herself compelled to leave the comfort of her bed to follow its path.

As Eva passed through her door she realized the familiar hallway of her home had miraculously changed into a cold metal stairway leading down. It didn’t make any sense; there was no way her home could change like this. Eva’s jaw hung wide open as she scraped her hand along the wall, feeling the rough rust of long forgotten iron. No, everything’s so wrong; she thought to herself, how could this possibly be happening?

With small, tentative steps Eva made her way down to the next landing, even as the light from her room receded and her mind screamed at her to run back into her room where things would make sense again. She couldn’t seem to stop herself going forward; she needed to know where that little creature went. The rusty stairs made her wish that she was wearing shoes. She didn’t even have any socks on, damn it.

She continued further down to finally reach a heavy-looking black door. It was so dark she could hardly see anything, yet her hand found the handle easily. She felt like she had no other way to go. Opening it as slowly and quietly as possible, she was astonished to find herself on a wide rooftop of a tall city building. As the bitter wind blew her hair, her mind fumbled as it tried to figure out how one could get to a rooftop by going down.

Despite her shock Eva did have a tremendous view. She could see a vast cityscape before her in the distance, and realized that the building she stood on now was a part of it. She was amazed by the change, the wind, and the starless sky above her head. She thought I must be dreaming!

Looking down, she saw that the little creature that began her journey was just a few feet away, still repeating its strange little phrase. It hopped off its legs and rolled like a ball to the edge of the roof. The chilly gusts made its slimy body ripple.

“Wuf pus meshoun inni soun foo chay!” it said to her for a final time, before hopping off the ledge.

Eva moved forward to see what she assumed to be the creature’s fall. She peered over to get the right view, cautious of the danger of being so close to the drop. She couldn’t see a thing. There were no lights, no indication of a street below. It was an empty abyss that would go on forever.

That’s when she felt something. Her surroundings were darkened by a shadow. Eva’s heart dropped as she realized there was something just behind her. She had to force herself to turn around. It was far worse than the tiny monster that had fallen.

They were three figures, each one more imposing than the last. They were tall, black, and eyes and teeth were their only distinguishing feature. It was hard to see the shape of them, but their eyes had their own kind of glow. They stared down and smiled in a way that made Eva’s stomach turn. Their presence made her only more aware of how close she was standing at the edge; a very bad place to be. She felt like she had been tricked.

“You are now entering…the demonic world…” a faint voice said to her.

The demons pushed her off the building. For how lone she fell she did not know.